Contact, Front Heel, and Penick

[Travtex]

Think I had one of those Random Breakthroughs.

So, I went and played 9 on a nearby PnP par 3 with the New Golf Buddy. He's a bogey golfer, and was far more helpful than my actual Golf Lesson Person was. However, my main problem remained: I could not make consistent contact. While nearly everything I hit goes straight -- I was hitting it fat 75% of the time, and thin 20% of the time with the remaining 5% belonging in 'Who the hell knows what's going to happen' territory.

He was encouraging me to keep my front heel down on the backswing -- And it DID seem to help me with more consistent contact, but felt awkward and uncontrolled. Also, it gave me a tendency to not shifting my weight and just flinging my arms at the ball with mixedly bad results.

Anyway, last night on a slow work day I read Harvey Penick's Little Red Book. I focused on a few points -- To paraphrase; what works for one doesn't work for another, naturally lifting the heel isn't a bad thing, and the key point of dropping the rear elbow with a weight shift to the front leg.

I came home this morning and, being an idiot, brazenly ignored my doctor's orders about taking two weeks off... (I tore some rib cartilage. Being in the medical profession, I am a lousy patient.)

I was only hitting my plastic air-flows up against the wall -- But the difference was astoundingly apparent even with those stupid little things. Suddenly, the ball had loft! And I was, bizarrely enough, HITTING it -- All while letting my heel come off the ground as much as it damn well pleased.

Promising.

Anyway, some questions: What are your thoughts on the front heel leaving the ground on the backswing? When I -don't- do it, I feel awkward and off-balance. When I just freely and comfortably backswing, the heel comes up QUITE a bit, and my front knee actually angles inward. This a bad habit, or just how my body works?

The rear elbow. My friend and my former Golf Lesson Person were insistent that it be tucked down into my side/hip at the top of my backswing... while keeping my front arm straight (I'm using relative terms as I'm a lefty and it gets confusing to say right/left).

Now... I'm pretty flexible, but I have long gangly arms (5'9" with a 74" reach)... this is a physical impossibility. Not worrying about it and dropping my elbow into the hip with the forward weight shift seems to have great results, but is there some way/should I focus on controlling that flying elbow tendency?

Even though I'm off the range for at least a few days (Doc says two weeks. Augh.), the airflow results are -so- dramatic that I'm hopeful that I've started to grasp a way to make solid consistent contact.

Can't wait to get back to my regular practice routine (1-2hr, 5-6x/week. I'm... obsessive a bit.)

[Uber$winG]

I’m inclined to believe that the only position that really matters in the golf swing is the impact position… however you get there, but as long as you get there.

This guy lifted his left heel, and he kept it in play… and he had what could be called a “flying right elbow.”

[Travtex]

Heh! There are shades of how I ended up, there. (Particularly with the front knee twisting in and the relatively slow and straight-back sweep of the early backswing before a shoulder turn...) In the end, I don't care how Furyk-ish my swing might look... If I make contact and it's relatively straight, I'm happy.

(I guess 'Happy' isn't hard. I've shanked shots off into the wilderness and been happy: "Hahaha! I'm a dumba$$!" Then cheerfully go punch it out of Deep Dark Africa.)

That reminds me of one shot I -can- hit consistently well... and I hope it's only rarely useful in the future: Put my ball in the deep rough thicket forest, I can chop-punch it to a good position. (I punched one through the trees onto the green with taunting golf-bud shouting 'Good luck from over there in Jumanji, ha ha!'.) Made similar shots four times in nine holes... which tells you how bad every other swing is.

Another problem I have is follow-through. It's entirely mental. Stupid plastic ball, no problem. On the range/course, I seem to hold up my club right at 90 degrees vertical.

[Travtex]

Got to the range this morning and hit some actual balls.

Wow.

While I haven't figured out my long clubs just yet (The club pro actually stopped to watch me for a bit and filled me in on a couple quirky things I was doing with them), I hit my irons solidly... For pretty much the first time, ever.

Only had a 7i, PW, and SW for steel irons in my bag. In stark contrast to my former ball-striking phenomenon of every club in the bag having the same distance, there were consistent and crisp differences in loft and carry of each club. (About 120, 90, and 70 respectively.)

Huge thanks to Harvey Penick. I had been trying to follow the 'Do it this way' guidance of some more... compact...individuals. Swing felt 100% smoother when I let my gangly spider monkey arms just do their gangly spider monkey arm thing so long as I drive my rear elbow down on the downswing.

This of course has only fueled an addiction.